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Dear Friends, The 2022 Iditarod has begun! Yesterday, the 49 teams raced off from Willow Lake on their exciting journey. I wonder if you knew that some mushers have a heart for shelter dogs? A shelter dog is one that is either homeless and taken to an animal shelter, or its owner can no longer …
I’ve spent the last 8 days in Alaska immersed in the culture of the Iditarod. Today at the Willow Restart, as I watched the mushers take off across the lake and down the trail, I realized I haven’t really talked about the dogs. And the Iditarod is all about the dogs. Watching the them pull …
With so much wildlife in Alaska, the question sometimes comes up about ‘Why use dogs and not other animals for work in the Arctic?’ It’s a very good question and one that has quite a complex answer. There have been attempts at using other animals to help humans live in the extreme climate in the …
Dear Friends, Winter is here and we sled dogs are loving our training runs with the mushers! Many of you know that we wear cloth booties on our feet when we run the Iditarod. These fit over our four paws and a Velcro strip keeps each snug on our ankles. The reason we wear …
IDITAROD: THE FIRST TEN YEARS – reading informational text to compare, contrast, analyze, and synthesize This month’s lesson prompt about the stars of the race is based on the book The First Ten Years pages 274 – 285 from the chapter “Unstoppable Dogs”. On these pages, early mushers describe their iconic dogs. Teachers should …
By Greg Closter DVM, Alaska SPCA Specific vaccination requirements have been established for all dogs racing in the Iditarod. As stated in Rule 40: All dogs entered in the race must be current on their vaccinations for distemper/hepatitis/lepto/parvo/parainfluenza (DHLPP), rabies, and injectable, nasal, or oral bordetella. Bordetella is often referred to as “kennel cough”. While …
Summer is ticking along and kids have all kinds of activities going on, but there are always those moments for relaxing, filling time between the water park and the summer movie series, and riding in the car to the next great vacation destination. Or use reading goals to incentivize reading for your student; they will …
By Lori E. Gordon, DVM Veterinary Surgical Care, Inc. MA Task Force 1 US&R Veterinary Officer, NVRT Veterinary Officer Let’s start with the basics. Neutering is the removal of an animal’s reproductive organ(s), all or most of them. Neutering refers to both males and females, though typically used for males while spaying refers to …
